Future Forces: Schooling in the Age of Digital Natives
With an iPhone and a few handy apps, a fifteen year-old can research, create and publish a multi-media tour de force on virtually any topic. Our children are digital natives. They are on-line. They are networked. And they will not settle for being mere consumers of content. They expect to share, produce and create. This wiki offers a window into our children’s 24/7/365-anytime/anywhere-world of networked learning where participants can explore: What does this mean for schools? What does this mean for parents? And, most importantly, what does this mean for these digital natives?
If you are not a member of this wiki but would like to be, just email Michael Ebeling at mebeling@summitmail.org. Discussions, questions, links and other forward-thinking contributions are welcome!
Michael Ebeling's overview slideshow. It's worth noting the connections among this slideshow, Elizabeth's slideshow and Emily Hunt's slideshow. Both research and experience are raising the same opportunities and challenges.
Link to terrific Web Literacy wiki created by Summit educators Kathy Pounds and Karen House Summit Web Literacy
The subtitle of Kathy and Karen's Web Literacy wiki is "Making the Most of the Web." This wiki offers practical information and guidance on variety of web literacy topics, including:
• Why use the web?
• Pre-arranged information gathering (with a 3-minute video on social bookmarking)
• Links to examples of a variety of Summit wikis
• How to construct a customized search engine
• Web site evaluation (including methods for fact checking)
• Essential principles of media consumption
FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants of Cool), to continue to explore life on the virtual frontier.
USC Annenberg School for Communications New Media Literacies Project
New Media Literacies (NML), a research initiative based within USC's Annenberg School for Communication, explores how we might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world.
The white paper Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (Jenkins et al., 2006) identifies the three core challenges: the participation gap, the transparency problem and the ethics challenge, and shares a provisionary list of skills needed for full engagement in today's participatory culture. In the video above, members of the NML team share their thoughts and perspectives on the skills we call the New Media Literacies.
Tokuhama-Espinosa's work offers an informed, thought-provoking, cutting-edge and practical primer on the links among neuroscience, psychology and education. The emerging field of Mind, Brain and Education Science offers an essential context for the decisions we make about the strategic use of social media and emerging technologies in educating our children.
In Chapter 2: Using What We Know as Fact, Tokuhama-Espinosa offers five "well-established concepts" that have implications for the ways we help our children and students engage with and leverage 21st media. While Tokuhama-Espinosa does not explore these concepts in the context of engagement with 21st-century media, parents and educators should:
[1] Human brains are as unique as faces.
"Human brains are as unique as faces. While the basic structure is the same, there are no two that are identical. While there are general patterns of organization in how people learn and which brain areas are involved, each brain is unique and uniquely organized."
[2] All brains are not equal: Context and ability influence learning.
"All brains are not equal in their ability to solve all problems. Context as well as ability influence learning. Context includes the learning environment, motivation for the topic of new learning, and prior knowledge."
[3] The brain is changed by experience.
"The brain is a complex, dynamic, and integrated system that is constantly changed by experience, though most of this change is only evident at the microscopic level."
[4] The brain is highly plastic.
"Human brains have a high degree of plasticity and develop throughout the lifespan, though there are major limits on this plasticity and these limits increase with age."
[5] The brain connects new information to old."Connecting new information to prior knowledge facilitates learning."
To best leverage the educational and informational potential of media in children's lives, we must not only gain fluency in that media. We must explore and apply what we know about the neurology of teaching and learning to the strategic use of that media.
Summit School Inspiring Learning Series May 5: A Discussion of Tony Wagner'sThe Global Achievement Gap
Video Clip on The Seven Survival Skills
Wagner’s Essential Questions p.269
What does it mean to be an educated adult in the 21st century?
How might our definition of academic rigor need to change in the age of the information explosion?
What are the best ways to know whether students have mastered the skills that matter most?
What do we need to do in our schools to motivate students to be curious and imaginative, and to enjoy learning for its own sake?
How do we ensure that every student has an adult advocate in his or her school who knows the student well?
How do we both support our educators and hold them accountable for results?
What do good schools look like—schools where all students are mastering the skills that matter most? How are they different from the schools we have, and what can we learn from them?
Future Forces: Schooling in the Age of Digital Natives
With an iPhone and a few handy apps, a fifteen year-old can research, create and publish a multi-media tour de force on virtually any topic. Our children are digital natives. They are on-line. They are networked. And they will not settle for being mere consumers of content. They expect to share, produce and create. This wiki offers a window into our children’s 24/7/365-anytime/anywhere-world of networked learning where participants can explore: What does this mean for schools? What does this mean for parents? And, most importantly, what does this mean for these digital natives?If you are not a member of this wiki but would like to be, just email Michael Ebeling at mebeling@summitmail.org. Discussions, questions, links and other forward-thinking contributions are welcome!
Resources
Larry Rosen’s Work
Welcome to the iGeneration: http://drlarryrosenmemyspaceandiblog.blogspot.com
Upcoming book: Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way they Learn
NPR's Audio Interview with Professor Rosen on Rewired
http://www.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=americanpublicmedia/programs/futuretense/2010/01/14/futuretense_20100114_64
Kaiser Family Foundation Study
Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds:
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm
2 New York Times articles
“The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20’s”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/weekinreview/10stone.html
“If your Kids are Awake, They’re Probably Online”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?scp=1&sq=If%20Your%20Kids%20are%20Awake,%20They%27re%20Probably%20On-Line&st=cse
Winston-Salem Journal article
“Parents Battle Kids’ Fixation on Devices”
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/jan/23/parents-battle-kids-fixation-on-devices/
Author Clay Shirky
Clay's TED Talk "How Cellphones, Twitter and Facebook Can Make History"
Video Summary of Clay Sharky's book Here Comes Everybody
CommonSenseMedia.org: http://www.commonsensemedia.org
“Is the Media Raising Your Kids? Landmark Kaiser Family Foundation Study Details Media Saturation”
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/media-raising-your-kids-landmark-kaiser-family-foundation-study-details-media-saturation
“Expert Article: Kids and Multitasking”
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/expert-article-kids-and-multitasking
(Senior Program Manager at Common Sense Media) Emily Hunt's recent presentation "Kids and Technology: Get Your School Talking about 21st Century Media."
Pdf download of Emily Hunt's powerpoint presentation
Link to my notes on the session
Interesting Blog Pieces on "digital generation" from University Perspective by James Cote and Anton Allahar
http://www.ivorytowerblues.com/?p=112
Center on Media and Child Health: Rich resource of research studies on related topics
http://cmch.typepad.com/
Future Forces Presenter Information
Elizabeth Helfant's contact information:
ehelfant@micds.org
Link to Elizabeth's Slideshow
Anthony Chivetta's contact information:
email: anthony@chivetta.org
Michael Ebeling's overview slideshow. It's worth noting the connections among this slideshow, Elizabeth's slideshow and Emily Hunt's slideshow. Both research and experience are raising the same opportunities and challenges.
Link to terrific Web Literacy wiki created by Summit educators Kathy Pounds and Karen House
Summit Web Literacy
The subtitle of Kathy and Karen's Web Literacy wiki is "Making the Most of the Web." This wiki offers practical information and guidance on variety of web literacy topics, including:
• Why use the web?
• Pre-arranged information gathering (with a 3-minute video on social bookmarking)
• Links to examples of a variety of Summit wikis
• How to construct a customized search engine
• Web site evaluation (including methods for fact checking)
• Essential principles of media consumption
Digital Directions piece entitled "Digital Tools Expand Options for Personalized Learning."
PBS Digital Nation Special: Is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained?
http://video.pbs.org/video/1402987791/
FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants of Cool), to continue to explore life on the virtual frontier.
USC Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts Henry Jenkins' analysis of the PBS Digital Nation speciall.
USC Annenberg School for Communications New Media Literacies Project
New Media Literacies (NML), a research initiative based within USC's Annenberg School for Communication, explores how we might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world.
The white paper Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (Jenkins et al., 2006) identifies the three core challenges: the participation gap, the transparency problem and the ethics challenge, and shares a provisionary list of skills needed for full engagement in today's participatory culture. In the video above, members of the NML team share their thoughts and perspectives on the skills we call the New Media Literacies.
Alan November’s “Focus on Elementary Students: Critical Thinking Skills on the Net”
Monday, December 7, 2009
3:00 – 4:00 pm (Central)/4:00 – 5:00 pm (Eastern)
ISACS Learning Bridge Audio Seminar
Powerpoint from the session
Notes from the session
Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.
The eLearning Coach Blog
Some practical and thought-provoking pieces on the use of social media to enhance learning.
The New Science of Teaching and Learning
Author and educator Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa has just published //The New Science of Teaching and Learning: Using the Best of Mind, Brain and Education Science in the classroom//--a book that anyone interested in cultivating a deeper, more informed understanding of the relationship between teaching and learning needs to read.
What does this have to do with social media in the lives of our children? Everything. Whether we are examining Marc Prensky's insights on digital natives, Todd Oppenheimer's analysis of the research on multitasking, or Mark Bauerlein's misgivings about the tech saviness of digital natives, a bedrock understanding of how human beings learn and what this means for how we teach is essential.
Tokuhama-Espinosa's work offers an informed, thought-provoking, cutting-edge and practical primer on the links among neuroscience, psychology and education. The emerging field of Mind, Brain and Education Science offers an essential context for the decisions we make about the strategic use of social media and emerging technologies in educating our children.
In Chapter 2: Using What We Know as Fact, Tokuhama-Espinosa offers five "well-established concepts" that have implications for the ways we help our children and students engage with and leverage 21st media. While Tokuhama-Espinosa does not explore these concepts in the context of engagement with 21st-century media, parents and educators should:
[1] Human brains are as unique as faces.
"Human brains are as unique as faces. While the basic structure is the same, there are no two that are identical. While there are general patterns of organization in how people learn and which brain areas are involved, each brain is unique and uniquely organized."
[2] All brains are not equal: Context and ability influence learning.
"All brains are not equal in their ability to solve all problems. Context as well as ability influence learning. Context includes the learning environment, motivation for the topic of new learning, and prior knowledge."
[3] The brain is changed by experience.
"The brain is a complex, dynamic, and integrated system that is constantly changed by experience, though most of this change is only evident at the microscopic level."
[4] The brain is highly plastic.
"Human brains have a high degree of plasticity and develop throughout the lifespan, though there are major limits on this plasticity and these limits increase with age."
[5] The brain connects new information to old."Connecting new information to prior knowledge facilitates learning."
To best leverage the educational and informational potential of media in children's lives, we must not only gain fluency in that media. We must explore and apply what we know about the neurology of teaching and learning to the strategic use of that media.
Summit School Inspiring Learning Series May 5: A Discussion of Tony Wagner's The Global Achievement Gap
Video Clip on The Seven Survival Skills
Wagner’s Essential Questions p.269
What does it mean to be an educated adult in the 21st century?
How might our definition of academic rigor need to change in the age of the information explosion?
What are the best ways to know whether students have mastered the skills that matter most?
What do we need to do in our schools to motivate students to be curious and imaginative, and to enjoy learning for its own sake?
How do we ensure that every student has an adult advocate in his or her school who knows the student well?
How do we both support our educators and hold them accountable for results?
What do good schools look like—schools where all students are mastering the skills that matter most? How are they different from the schools we have, and what can we learn from them?